The New Blog Name

The poll to the left closed about an hour ago. I've been busy with kids & my Vicarious Girl staying the night.

After a couple days of the poll being open I saw it leaning toward "Primitive Momma, Vintage Wife." Most of the messages & comments I got mentioned the "Vintage Wife" part, so I figured that was the drawing point. Not only that, but I also began playing with banners & images & such. So, I began thinking of what I wanted to do with that name. For some reason "Primitive Momma, Vintage Wife" quit flowing for me. Plus, I was finding it difficult to tie primitive & vintage together. Or at least my ideas of the 2. Then it dawned on me what made even more sense.

So at some point in time, I will redirect you to "Retro Momma, Vintage Wife." Thanks for voting.

It's time for a change....

I'm post dating this, so scroll down for newest posts!!

We'll be moving soon (soon, I hope). Life will no longer be in Small Town Wyoming. So now I've got a decision to make. I plan on renaming the blog..... but I'm not sure what. I'm asking your help. Here is what I've come up with so far:

> Ms. Wicked With... (Spray Paint, a Pan & a Garden Spade) - I think this encompasses a lot of what I do- gardening, crafting, thrifting, cooking.

> Martha Stewart Who? - Sebastion said that to me yesterday morning. "Martha Stewart who? I just want to know why YOU'RE not famous, Mom???"

> Growing Kids, Food & Ideas - See description for Ms. Wicked With ^^

> Primitive Momma, Vintage Wife - Don't know.... Just came to me.

> Hippie Yuppie Earth Freak - Actually this is what I've been dubbed (though it's more like Hippieyuppieearthfreak), because I'm a creamy crunchy Momma. Not sure if I'm serious about this one, though, LOL

Any thoughts? I've made a poll to your left (<< That way :D ). PLEASE VOTE!!

Prayer...

I am praying
for those in the
Southeast
& thankful
that our families
are accounted for
& fine.

2-in-1 Project Updo

I am on a roll. I've got so many cans of spray paint & surfed so many wonderful blogs. My wheels are turning & there's no stopping me now :D

One of the things I've been finding across the web are old window frame updos. I started kicking myself for getting rid of all those windows last summer. There were a LOT. I'd venture to say no less than 30 or 40 of them. Screen windows, glass windows, window frames, different sizes, etc.

I knew we still had a few doors still in the shed, so I went to take a look. I was hoping one of the doors with the glass panes in them might be suitable for cutting down. Above me in the rafters, something begged me to take a look, and I found a few window frames still hidden away. I squealed in delight & looked around for something to stand on to reach them. Amazingly our step stool had not been taken in from a week & a half before when we were cleaning out the shed. I managed to pull down this, among a few other things.

I wasn't sure when I cleaned it up what I had in mind. I had several ideas, but no idea where they'd take me. I thought of taking out all the glass & putting in hardware cloth. I considered frosting all the panes & attaching items to the panes. I thought of leaving 2 clear, 2 frosted. So many ideas. What I ended up doing was so much simpler & it didn't dawn on me what I wanted to do until the last minute.

While I was working on my Scrappy Shelf, I found 3 shadow box style pictures that I wanted to updo as well.... Take note of the green one in the middle :D


Here's the sequence.....

After I cleaned the window with vinegar & a cloth, I used various tool to get out the brittle & nasty pieces of trim that were holding the glass in. Thankfully, the brittle pieces were only on 2 sides of each pane, leaving 2 perfectly sturdy & strong pieces to hold the glass. Keenan wanted to be my photographer the evening I did this. He must have taken 40 pictures. Lucky for you, I only chose the few better ones :D







At some point in time, my darling boy brought me his authentic construction helmet "in case it falls on you, Mom." What a doll!! <3 <3



All done cleaning the brittle trim out!!!


My helper & photographer offered to vacuum up the mess.


One of my other handsome fellas came along & posed for a picture.


While my baby was cleaning up my mess, I scrounged for the caulk gun & found a tube of silicone caulk already open. On the sides that I'd removed the trim, I lightly caulked the edges of the panes.


Once that had dried, I taped & primered the window frame with brush on primer. I was going to go for a distressed white or cream to begin with.




Then I decided since I had already done an antique mirror in semi-gloss black, I'd do the window frame the same, since they'd be in the same room.


After the black coats were done, I removed the tape & started playing with the frosted window spray. I practiced on a couple panes and learned not to spray faux frosting while it's angled up. It ran :-(


No biggie. I broke out the 2 frosted panes. I knew now (after more practice) how to faux spray frost windows.


Oh, look at that! Is that? Was that? Yup, that's the green frame from above. I sprayed that in Satin Nickel, then slightly distressed it.


Then I adhered a piece of burlap cut to size to the inside piece of board, strung some silver beads onto safety pins & using a needle, I threaded some thread through the burlap & tied the safety pins down. "Love, Faith, Joy" (You can click this pic to enlarge it).



Then I laid my window frame on the floor & played for about a minute.


And up on the wall my new & simple masterpiece went.


We're quite chuffed with it. Hubba loves it, too!!!


This post is part of the following linky parties & blog carnivals:

Monday:

Sew Can Do, Craftastic Mondays




Tuesday:



Wednesday:





Thursday:

The Ladder Shelf

When we decided to put the house on the market, I decided to do something I've wanted for awhile. I needed a fairly slim, low profile shelf for one section of our living room that also housed a built-in shelf. I decided to build a ladder shelf. I looked at some plans online, and thought "I can do that." So I bought some gorgeous pine wood at the local hardware/lumber store. We figured I'd paint it brown to match the painted tables. Once I put it together I realised we don't have a lot of nice *real* wood pieces, so I set out to find the perfect stain.



Enter Menard's and Minwax. And the stain colour called..... Jacobean.



The decor on this shelf, actually this whole corner has been changed a few times, and of course with Easter, we've added some spring & Easter decor. The first picture of the unfinished shelf shows the corner a mess. This was near the beginning of our venture, and we were playing the shuffle game. Shuffle everything from one room to the next. So please excuse the mess.

But yeah, I'm fairly chuffed with the ladder shelf. Oh, and the living room walls are now painted white.

He is RISEN!!!

He is risen indeed.

May your Easter be blessed!

Scrappy Shelf

We did our trim in the big room a bit back (I need to blog about the redo, I know). We had several small pieces of moulding left. If you know me, you know I couldn't bear to throw them out. I paid good money for this stuff, and I couldn't just let those dollars go out to the curb.

So I set out on a new venture to save those pieces of wood. Did I mention that same morning (Wednesday morning), I also found out that our staple gun is also a light duty brad gun??? SQUEEE!!!

Here they are after I cut them. 1 piece of rounded moulding, 1 piece of lattice, 1 piece of screen window trim.


Here, I've used wood glue to glue the lattice to the widest part of the rounded trim. Then I used my nifty-now-brad-gun to hold it in place.


Excuse this photo. A bit blurry.


Then using the glue & my nifty-now-brad-gun, I attached the screen trim to the front of the lattice.


Another blurry photo, but I know you get the idea.



A couple coats of brushed on Zissner Bullseye 1-2-3 primer, then a couple coats of Krylon Bright White satin spray. 2 hangers on the back & voila!! A low profile shelf, perfect for small votive, smaller pics & whatever else I can fit.


I've hung it above my bed, and placed a couple things on for show, but this isn't the final decor.



Oooo, that last picture is slanted. Please don't mind that. The shelf is actually straight.

The Forbidden Candelholders.....

OK, so they weren't forbidden. But they had a Very Bad Rep, even if just in My Book. Seriously, look at them. They scream 70's (and not this new wave back "in" 70's). They were filthy the part, too. I'd tried cleaning them up with brasso to no avail. So I hated them.....

Until......


Hubba said I could paint them (finally!!!).

So I set to work dusting them & cleaning them out...


He got them at the thrift store long before we got together. Whoever had them before had stuffed them with foil (???). And wax....



And..... MARBLES?!?!?


And a SCREWDRIVER!?!?!?! Oh wait no. That was was me getting a screwdriver stuck in the candlestick holder. How did that picture get into this lineup? What I didn't realize is that the insides of these things are hollow. From.one.end.to.the.other....

Anyhoo, let's move on.

I started with a spray primer. I sprayed a coat on them.


And a coat on my hands.


Then I sprayed a couple coats of the Sparkling Canyon on.


GORGEOUS already! I can't wait to see the finished product. Oh HURRY & dry, will ya???


Wow, what a difference!!! WOOHOO!!!


But now I have a problem. What to do with these "candlestick holders" (that by now I'm thinking weren't candleholders to begin with) to make them hold candles.

So I set off in this one horse town in search of..... something. All I could think was "Let's go thrifting. Surely we'll find SOMETHING I can paint & attach to these babies!!" Family Dollar was on the way, so we stopped there first. I let the guy at the register know I was bringing in an item that "I need to match up." I wish my camera would have been on to catch the look on his face.

Anyway, moving on.....

Nothing at Family Dollar was suitable, so off to our originally planned destination. The thrift store. I looked at glass candle holders. I looked at glass sconces. I looked at saucers. I looked at small glassware. I even looked at glass lids. I figured if I could find 2 small enough ones, I could invert them. Nothing.

So back to the candle holder shelf I went. I began putting several things on the counter to try out.




No...

These were from a creamer set.


What a perfect fit. I figured I'd paint them gloss black.


But no....

Wooden candlestick holders. I could attach them, then paint them the same colour.

*sigh* Still not quite right.


Small glass candle holders. I love these small simple ones. Let's try them out.


Oh I love these.


But I want to check the shelf ONE.LAST.TIME.... You see the base of that candle stick holder? Keep that in mind. It may appear again in this post. PERFECTPERFECTPERFECT!!! I cringed a little at $6 for the set of 2. But don't worry. You'll see these holders in a later post :D



SWEET success!!! The bottom of the thrift candlestick holder actually screws off. This was the intended look when my wheels started turning. It's wonderful, because it will hold a pillar candle (don't mind THIS pillar candle. I hate it. I'll be buying some new ones.).


It will hold glass jar candles.


And those small glass candle holders? The simple ones? I bought those as well. 25¢ each. I couldn't resist. Oh & they look GREAT on our upstyled candle holders too :D